


Deep Blue Sea (and then a fish out of water)

by QueenPotema



Series: My Late Ass Izuna Week fics [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Dark, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:27:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27321190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenPotema/pseuds/QueenPotema
Summary: Izuna learns a valuable lesson about the sister species of the mermay.Written for Izuna Week 2020Prompt: Fantasy AU
Series: My Late Ass Izuna Week fics [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1994620
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17
Collections: Izuna Appreciation Week





	Deep Blue Sea (and then a fish out of water)

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact: I'm not sure if 'mermay' is actually a word or not but im saying it is because I hate 'mermaids' and 'mermen'
> 
> Enjoy!

Izuna revels in the feeling of weightless freedom as he zips through the sea chasing after his brother playfully. Two of the dolphins that hunted with them that morning shoot past him after Madara as well, and a third bumps him in the back and then zooms off with the others. 

_ I'm it I guess, but you are not getting away from me this time Aniki!  _ Izuna intones. 

He closes the fins along his spine and stretches open the water gliders on his hips. He is sacrificing some accuracy, but the speed boost will make up for it. Izuna twists in the water and torpedoes up towards Madara, hitting the unsuspecting man square in his chest and sending them both tumbling through the water. The vibrations of dolphin laughter reach the organs under Izuna's chin, and he smuggly flashes his iridescent markings at his brother to gloat about his victory. 

Madara's own marking flash back, and it's Izuna's only warning before his brother's powerful tail is slammed into his ribcage making him spiral through the current for a few meters. Once he rights himself he pulls a pout and glares at Madara.

_ "That's cheating,"  _ Izuna flashes with his neck and shoulder scales.

_ "Not my fault you always forget to lock down my tail,"  _ Madara flashes back, his face showing no remorse.

Izuna is about to launch at his brother when a distress sonar from one of their clan members sounds from the depths. The dolphins chitter nervously, and Madara signals that he heard.

_ "I will check, wait here with the dolphins. We are closer to the surface now than I thought, and they are too young to properly defend themselves. It is dangerous for them to be here alone, and if the problem down there is too bad, they could get hurt there too. We will take them home when I get back."  _ Madara flashes as quickly as he can.

Izuna nods his acknowledgement and swims around the dolphins to center their attention on him. Madara is diving away in the next second, leaving Izuna to keep the short attention of rowdy young dolphins. It feels like an eternity, but it is only about twenty minutes later when the dolphins start getting agitated by something. 

Izuna scowls and tries to figure out what has disturbed them, only to hear the most piercing unnatural sonar he has ever had the displeasure of hearing when he opens his sonar organs. He uselessly covers his sonars to try and stop the horrible reverberation, but it won't stop now that he's opened them. He has to locate the source and stop it that way, it's painful for him and it's causing the dolphins harm as well. 

Hesitantly, Izuna swims towards the source of the awful signal, which only amplifies it and brings him closer to the surface. He comes to a stop, somewhat frightened of actually breaching, because he knows how dangerous it can be, but a glance back at his young friends spurs him forward. He keeps swimming and sees a strange object on the top of the water. The unnatural sonar is emitting from the large curved object floating on top of the water. 

_ Humans?  _ Izuna wonders. He has heard about the species that lives out of water in stories, mostly bad ones about them slaying sea creatures for glory, or polluting the oceans and driving the food fish away, but Izuna has never seen a human. Curiosity takes over his better judgment. Maybe, if it is humans, they will be able to communicate with him. It would be easier for Izuna to ask them to turn their terrible sonar off than it would be to figure out how to do it on his own. 

The mer whips his tail through the water and gives it a little more power as he reaches the surface so that when he breaches he catches enough air to grab the side of the floating thing and look over the edge. It makes more noise than he thought it would out of the water, and the creature inside the object is obviously startled, because it flails away from the sound and to the opposite side of the floater. 

As Izuna closes his gills and heaves the water out of his lungs so he can breath air, he takes a good look at the terrified creature. It is very pale colored, and it has no scales, no fins, and no signaling marks. In addition, where its tail should be it has two finless tentacle looking things, and there aren't even any webs between it's fingers. Most curious. Izuna tills his head a bit, when he focuses in on the face. It looks almost normal, it even has what could be signal marks… though also maybe not. They don't appear to be made of a different tissue than the rest of the creature's body as Izuna's signals are, but rather they appear as if his skin was dyed somehow, like that one time Madara got inked by a squid. 

Experimentally, Izuna flashes his signals in the usual code his people use to see if the creature understands and has a way to respond. Its eyes widen a bit, and it shuffles closer, as if entranced, but it doesn't seem to understand. Izuna purses his lips and thinks for a minute. This creature is more than likely a human, it matches all the things Izuna has heard. 

His mother was enamored by humans when she was alive, he remembers her teaching him the only good things he ever heard about the species. One thing she was most fascinated by was their communication, and she taught both he and Madara something she said the humans called 'speech'. She used to say that the fact that mermay were capable of it was a sign that they were meant to be able to live in harmony with humans one day. Izuna had been very curious about the idea back then, but it was Madara who listened with starry eyed dreams of peace and harmony with their sister species. Izuna had grown more sceptical over the years, and Madara had as well, after all, everything else they heard about humans was dark and bloody stories of sealife being slaughtered without cause.

But he is still curious, and this is the first human Izuna has ever seen to decide for himself with. He tries to remember his mother's lessons on human speech, and finds that he actually does remember a lot of it. It takes a few tries to get his unused throat and lungs to produce the right sounds again but eventually, under the wary human's gaze, he gets it right.

"You are human?" Izuna croaks.

The other seems surprised at best, blatant disbelief is more fitting to the emotion on his face, but he still responds, "Uh… yes. I am."

"Why?" Izuna asks, tilting his head in the opposite direction than he already had it tilted and readjusting his position hanging from the side of the floating thing.

The human furrows its brow, "I was born that way?"

Izuna blinks a few times in confusion because that isn't what he asked and then realizes his mistake, "No, why are you here?"

"Oh," the human says, scooting a bit closer to Izuna, now seeming as fascinated and curious as Izuna is. "I am a marine biologist, I was studying. The uh… fish and things. In this area. It's my… well it's what I do to… no I doubt you would understand that either."

"Your role in clan is study fish, yes?" Izuna supplies.

"Something like that." The human muses.

Izuna uses this tail to splash water onto his drying scales, "I understand roles. Mine is flank hunter. I push fish school into tighter form for easy catch. Why study fish though?"

The human brushes its hair back with its weird, unwebbed hand, "It's a little complicated… Are there… more of you?" 

"You mean Mermay? Yes. My clan lives deep in this area. But fish is harder to find now, so we come higher. Your floating thing makes terrible sonar. Hurts. Turn it off please?" Izuna asks.

"Sure, it isn't like I'm going anywhere to use it anyway." The humans says as it turns and taps a strange box.

"You stay here?" Izuna asks.

"No choice, my propeller is jammed up. I didn't bring the proper equipment to get into the water and fix it. I will have someone come get me." 

"Propeller?" Izuna repeats slowly. He furrows his brow becoming more confused when he thinks about what the human said, "Equipment?"

"The propeller makes my boat move. I need special things so that I will be safe under water to fix it, and I don't have them." The human tries to explain with a sigh, "Anyway, I'm much more interested in you right now. I did not think mermay existed, no one does. You are extraordinary. Will you answer some more questions?"

"I will 'fix' this… ah… boat? I am already safe in the water, so I will fix for you first as thanks for turning off the bad sonar. Then, I will answer questions, if you do too. I have not seen a real human before." Izuna states, "Fair?"

The human nods slowly, "Fair enough."

"Point to 'propeller,'" the mer snips.

The human does and Izuna drops off the side of the 'boat' and swims around to where it pointed. A 'propeller' as it turns out is made of three odd flat blades flattened and twisted into seemingly unuseful shapes. Izuna stares at it for several seconds before he realizes it needs to turn, and it can't because it has seaweed and some sort of binding wrapped around it. He lifts his tail and hooks the sharp spiny fins near the middle of it in the bindings. It takes a few tries, but he finds a good angle to cut through the material that is holding the propeller. He smiles triumphantly and hops back onto the side of the boat.

"Propeller is free!" Izuna announces.

The human presses something and the boat lurches forward for a second, prompting Izuna to hold on tighter to not fall.

"Thank you." The human says, bringing the boat back to a stop. He then crosses back to Izuna in a flash and points a little black thing towards him, "Now for my first question. You said you live in a clan?"

Izuna is somewhat confused by the shift, but he adapts fairly quickly, "Clan, yes. We live close and hunt together. My den is just with my older brother, but others live near. They help us when we need them, and we do the same. What is black thing?"

"It is a camera. It is saving an image of you and your voice so I can view it later." The human replies quickly, "Are there more clans?"

"Few. Water is getting dirtier and dirtier, and bad water kills little ones very quickly. Mermay are losing numbers. Biggest clans are in cold ice water now, less dirty water makes it easier to protect babies. Do humans not have clans?"

"Not in the same way. We have families that we live in, but for the most part, we are not as tight knit as staying together our whole lives. Do your females give live birth? And when you said you had a brother, did you mean a brother by blood?"

"Babies are born still, a mother has to open their gills for them and fill lungs with water before the baby starts moving. My brother is my brother. If by 'blood' you mean same parents, then yes, we have the same parents. Do you have brother or sister?"

"Yes, I have an older brother." The human says as he starts rummaging around the boat, "How are you breathing out of the water if you breathe through gills?"

"I am adult, I can close my gills and empty water from my lungs on my own to breathe anywhere. Do humans make the water dirty on purpose?"

"That is a rather loaded question, but to simplify the answer, suffice it to say that most humans have no regard for anything but themselves." 

"That is sad," 

"It is what it is." The human shrugs as he turns back to Izuna and drops a bag onto the bottom of his boat, "Can I touch your scales?"

Izuna blinks a few times. "I guess so."

With that permission given, the human places one of his weird hands on the signaling scales of Izuna's shoulder. He then rubs the scales along Izuna's spine making the mer shiver, and finally the scaleless hide of Izuna's belly.

"They're different." The human observes.

"The ones on my shoulder and neck glow when I flex them so I can communicate underwater. They are harder material as well. My belly has no scales so I can move the way I need to in water." Izuna explains.

"What about your tail?" The human asks.

Izuna glances down at his still mostly submerged tail, "It's got smaller, softer scales for speed."

"May I see? I will help you in and out of my boat so I can get measurements and pictures, if you don't mind."

Izuna doesn't know what a picture is, and he only vaguely remembers what a measurement is, but this human has been nothing but calm and curious the whole time. So Izuna agrees and wiggles his way over the edge of the boat with the human's help. He regrets it almost immediately when the human slams him into the hard surface of the boat's bottom and sits on his back. 

"What are you doing, get off!!" Izuna shrieks as he flails for freedom. 

The human is just far enough forward that Izuna can't catch it with his fin spines to stab it. He desperately tries to get free, even as he feels his arms being restrained, and his tail continues to be no help out of water. 

"You are the scientific discovery of the century. Do you know how long I have been trying to find one of you? And you think I'm just going to let you get away? As if. All I had to do was wait for you to dry a little so you wouldn't be slippery enough to escape and make sure you could survive out of water long enough to make it to shore." The human says, pulling the restraints far too tightly around Izuna's wrists. 

A high pitched shriek echoes through the air, and Izuna immediately recognizes it as his brother calling for him. He shrieks back and then cries out Madara's name in the human speech. The human stands up, dragging Izuna up with him in one arm. 

Izuna catches only a glimpse as his brother charges the boat, trident ready to pierce it and send it to the bottom of the ocean before three horribly loud noises jar his brain and Madara disappears into now foamy red waves. Izuna swears his heart snaps in two at that moment. He glances over and sees a smoking weapon of some sort. It must fire projectiles. Then that means Madara… Izuna renews his struggling ten fold, now in a better position to stab the human holding him with fin spines. 

A strange smelling cloth is pressed over his mouth and nose and his wrestling lasts for only five more seconds before his body's strength seems to evaporate. The last thing he sees before the darkness wins is his brother's blood spreading farther and farther through the currents.

…

When Izuna first wakes up, he feels the familiar caress of water, and he thinks he just had a horrible nightmare. That lovely delusion lasts only until he comes to full awareness and finds that while he is back in blessed cool saltwater, he's also confined by some sort of invisible wall, and he is definitely not in the ocean. On the other side of the invincible wall he sees hundreds of menacing objects he has no name for. His heart pounds with fear.

"Chloroform works on subject, but subject also seems to metabolize it far faster than average. Repeat experiment needed." A voice behind him says monotonously.

Izuna twists around in his confined space and finds the human he foolishly trusted there with a glowing flat thing that he is meticulously tapping. 

"Why?" Izuna says faintly. He forgot for a minute that he was not in air to properly speak at the moment, but it proved to be irrelevant as his voice still comes out and though it is garbled, it is still understandable.

"I had three brothers once." The human states simply, as if that was any sort of explanation. He continues tapping away before he finally turns and continues, "My two younger brothers and I were out fishing one day. We did a lot of fishing together, our father was the owner of a large fishing company and we all loved to eat fish, so this was not unusual. But that day,  _ your kind _ decided that we were a viable food source. Itama was yanked from our boat before we even knew there was danger. Kawarama was snatched second, and despite my best efforts to hang onto him, I lost my grip and he got pulled under the waves. Of course I tried to dive in and save them, but I was attacked before I even got out of the boat. And I couldn't believe the myth I saw. Mermay, fish humans. It was uncanny, unbelievable. I got knocked out during the struggle, but for some reason I wasn't given the same death as my brothers, no matter how I prayed later on for just that. I woke up on the beach, having survived both the attack and the drift to dry land." 

"I thought you said human thought mermay were not real," Izuna mumbles numbly in shock.

The human strides up to the container Izuna is trapped in and lightly bangs his head against it and closes his eyes. 

"I lied. About myself anyway. Most other humans don't believe in your kind. But it would be hard for me to not believe in the monsters that killed my brothers. No one else believed me though, and they chalked my brother's deaths up to lost at sea drownings. Even my elder brother refused to believe me." The human looks up with a sneer that makes Izuna's blood curdle, "But now, I have you, and everyone who said I was too traumatized to truly know what happened, everyone who called me crazy, everyone who doubted me will see the truth. Having something new to learn about is just a bonus."

Izuna stares at the human in horror. He is truly deranged. The mer closes his eyes tightly and sees a cloud of dark red spreading in the water. Even if Madara had somehow survived the wounds he had been dealt, the blood would have attracted predators that surely finished the job. Izuna focuses his energy on Madara, on flowing black hair whipping around as Madara swam and twisted gracefully through the water, playing with smaller mer and dolphins, on bright red eyes with slit pupils, full of life, on hopelessly dark red curls of blood, and he vows to win this game the human in front of him has dragged him into, so that he can relish in the new set of red eyes in his life filling with hopeless desolate despair.

Izuna snaps his eyes back open and glowers at the pale bastard of a human, "You should have chosen different mer clan, mine is not merciful. I will make sure you suffer for your mistake."

"Good luck." The human smiles and reveals a blade from a belt as the water starts draining from Izuna's container, "That attitude of yours will fade. In the meantime, let's see how blood clotting works for your kind, shall we?"

**Author's Note:**

> You may have noticed that the major character death tag was not used on this fic even though I try my best to tag as well as I know how. 
> 
> For anyone wondering, Madara is not dead. I have a lot of ideas for this AU that I may put to use if there enough interest to make it worthwhile. Leave me your opinion!


End file.
